


Jumpchain - Introducing the Jumper

by Cheating_Jumper



Series: Jumpchain [1]
Category: Jumpchain
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-24 23:15:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14365794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cheating_Jumper/pseuds/Cheating_Jumper
Summary: In which the Jumper is introduced to the idea of travelling through the fictional multiverse, but is more interested in his cat.





	Jumpchain - Introducing the Jumper

 

“To paraphrase Fry, here's to another lousy year” I said to myself as I watched the countdown to 2018 on tv, sitting alone with a case of ginger beer. I shook my head and reached for another when everything froze. The clock was stopped on 11:59:59. One part of me was wondering why stop time one second from midnight, but most of me was just wondering who stopped it and why.

 

“Well that would be me. As for the why, I have an amazing opportunity for you!”

 

I looked around for the source of the voice, but saw none.

 

“Well of course there's none, I'm projecting my voice directly into your particular strand of reality to give you this offer. Now will you listen or not?”

 

“...Ok, I'm listening...” I said hesitantly.

 

“Great! I'm one of a number of entities who enjoy sending mortals on adventures, and you've been picked to be the next Jumper in the Chain. The basics are that you get to go to various different worlds for ten year stretches, collecting items, powers, and experiences. Meanwhile, everything here at home will stay exactly as you left it until you return. What do you say, are you in?”

 

“Different worlds? You mean like Mars and stuff, or different versions of Earth?” I had to ask, I'm a stickler for details.

 

“Could be either, could be both, could be neither,” the voice sounded vaguely amused. “For the most part they'll be worlds that are, from your current perspective, fictional.”

 

“That does sound pretty cool... but what about my cat?”

 

“Your cat? I told you, while you're gone everything stops. Your little kitty won't even know you were ever gone”

 

“Yeah, but it'll still be ten years for me”

 

“Alright look. This is a chance of a lifetime buddy, if you wanna go on adventures and have a really wild time, just say yes. I'll even let you have your cat join you after your first Jump”

 

“In that case, I really can't say no. Yes, disembodied voice, I'm in”

 

“Fantastic!” The voice started cackling and I got the idea that maybe I should've said no....

 

 

* * *

 

 

Before I could continue that train of thought, I was suddenly in a dark grey stone room with a woman who seemed to be in her mid-thirties. She was grinning widely and holding out her hand. She cracked up laughing when I went to shake it and realised I didn't have any body at all. It took her a couple of moments before she calmed down enough to tell me to concentrate on becoming corporeal.

 

“We're gonna start you off easy first jump,” She told me, still grinning, “but first, pick a card.”

 

She waved a presenting hand at three cards that appeared in the air in front of me. The first was silver with a burnished bronze “1/2” embossed on the centre. The second was gold with “x2” in crimson. The third and final card was black with a white “x3”

 

“Alright, so what do they all do?” I ask, expecting the worst. I was already getting the sense that my new benefactor – Chan, she calls herself – has the kind of humour that I only appreciate when not directed at myself.

 

“Exactly what they say on the tin, dear. One halves, one doubles, and one triples. They all have strings attached, don't worry, but they all make your jumps extra fun” she smirked

 

I sighed and picked the x3. Might as well go all in at this point, the worst that could happen is I get sent home. The other cards disappeared as the one I chose spun in the air like something out of a video game.

 

“Oh wonderful! I'm so pleased you chose that. It's going to be so much fun,” her smile would make a shark uneasy. “Let's get you slotted into your new life shall we?”

 

Everything faded again.

 

 

* * *

 

 

An indeterminable amount of time later I was sitting on a couch with Chan next to me and a large screen tablet on my lap.

 

“Let's start the tutorial shall we dear?” Chan said and the tablet turned itself on, playing a song that dredged up memories from my childhood: the theme of the very first series of Pokemon. “You're going to be heading into the world of Pokemon! This world is full of creatures known as Pokemon, blah blah blah, you know the spiel. Now normally you'd be getting a stipend of Choice Points, or CP, for you to spend on perks, skills, and items with you taking drawbacks to get more CP; however, the card you chose gives you triple the CP at the cost of having to choose the maximum drawbacks per jump, and if you don’t choose a drawback that I want you to have I’ll give it to you anyway, and occasionally you’ll get a chain drawback which just means it carries over to every jump. On top of that, anything that can be random must be random. You understand all that?”

 

I took a moment, trying to process everything she said. “So basically I get triple points and in exchange I have to shoot myself in the foot or you’ll do it for me.”

 

“Got it in one sweet-cheeks” she grinned, kissing my supposedly sweet cheek, and tapped the tablet for me to start my build.

 

The first part was the standard spiel that you get at the start of every Pokemon game explaining what they are and such. Then it had a list of freebies: a bag (bigger on the inside), pokégear (can be muted), pokédex (already filled), 6 pokéballs (standard catch rate), 3 potions (band-aid in a bottle), and a hat (red, floppy optional). It was a nice little starter pack.

Next was a pokéball coloured like a globe. I grinned at that, of course the world of Pokemon would look like that. I tapped it and it spun around for a moment, then the pokéglobe opened to release the word KALOS. I was going to gen 6. Not bad. I would've preferred Alola, but at least it wasn't Unova. Then again, maybe pokéworld Unova was better than the gen 5 games, after all it couldn't be much worse.

 

Chan smacked my arm after I thought that and told me to stop being biased and hurry up.

 

The next thing I scrolled to was a slowly rotating coin. One side had a penis and the other had a vagina.

 

“Um, what's this?”

 

“I did say that whatever could be random, would be.”

 

I think I'm starting to hate that smirk. I tapped the coin and it flipped, landing with the penis face up. I guess I was staying a guy... this time at least.

After the coin disappeared, a wheel with wedges numbered 10-17 turned up and started spinning. I tapped it and it slowed, clacking around to stop on 12.

 

“Congratulations! You're a 12 year old boy!” Chan said, pinching my soon to be pubescent cheek. I wasn't exactly ecstatic; I hadn't much enjoyed being a teenager my first time round.

 

Part three was titled Identity. The options here were Drop In, Hermit, Small Town, City Life, and Moneybags, with a small description of each. All except drop in would give me new memories of a life lived in the world of Pokemon. I read them all a few times, but in the end I decided to go drop in, I wasn't sure I wanted another set of memories competing with my own and affecting my decisions. Maybe if there was a professor option, but I'm not keen to have a second teen in my head, even if that teen is me.

 

Whatever my feelings about that, the next bit was what I was waiting for – picking my starter. Actual Starter, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Out of Region. It was an easy pick for me, I had to have Charmander! The options underneath were interesting though, they let me have shiny (nah), a mental bond (nice, but no thanks), but the egg move and the advance move were definitely a yes. Charmander with Heat Wave and Dragon Pulse. Fuck. Yes. All up that cost 150, so 2850 left. If everything is priced like that it’s gonna take fucking ages to try and spend all the CP.

 

Next up is Skills and Abilities (“Character customisation on steroids. You want superpowers? You got superpowers. Have fun!” Awesome, thank you). The prices here go up a fair bit, but I’ve still got a shitload to spend. I grin at Chan and start ticking boxes. Combat training (mastery of marine hand to hand combat and keeping cool in a fight) is free for a Drop In, which is nice since up to now my fighting style has been kick the balls and punch the sternum. Effective for the playground, less so actual fights. Physical Fitness (nearly Captain America level of fitness), yes please! Freerunning (Acrobatic feats few humans and not many Pokemon can match), absolutely! Survival Training (innate knowledge of survival skills) gets a tick as well. I’m gonna be spending a lot of time in the wilderness methinks.

That’s 300 for all three, so 2550.

Mechanic (can fix or improve most machines), Technician (very handy with most electronics from the pc to the pokéball), Ranger (insight into Pokemon instincts plus tracking skills), Blend In (blend into a crowd, hide in plain sight, lose someone following you), all 300 apiece with Blend discounted. I’ll take Mechanic, Technician, and Blend In. Ranger sounds good, but the other three leave me with 1800 and there were still the high price things left.

Then we get to the good stuff: Aura (aura manifestation – empathy, barriers, aura spheres, with training up to Lucario level), Psionics (psychic powers, telepathy and telekinesis, with training up to Gardevoir level), and Savant (perfect memory, mental calculator, near perfect spatial awareness, and pinpoint accuracy with ranged weapons) are all amazing and 600 each, with Savant discounted which meant it was autopicked really. The only high cost I wasn't sure about was Pokéglot which let you understand what Pokemon are saying. It was like talking to animals, something I'm leery of at the best of times, so I decided to pass. After Savant I had 1500 and two 600 I wanted. Maybe triple wasn’t as much as it seemed. I grabbed Psionics and booted Blend. It was discounted but I was already pretty good at being unnoticeable. So 1050 left

Just before I went to the next section, the screen flickered and another option appeared, Champ In The Making which gave me leadership and teamwork abilities, and cost 300. Not worth it right now. Maybe after I grab drawbacks.

 

The next section was Gear. A little note to the side said that I could buy items multiple times, and the first item up made me want to grab as many as I could.

 

A 3 pack of master balls cost 100. I’d’ve thought that’d be 100 apiece but I was not complaining. I grabbed two purchases bringing me to 850

 

Complete set of HMs, oh yeah. Those things are hard to find so 50 for them. 800 left

 

50K Pokédollars for 50 CP. I don’t know the exchange rate, but if it’s the same as Yen then that’s like 500ish bucks in Aussie dollars I think. Money is always useful, but I’ll circle back to it.

 

Collapsible bike, might as well get it now, not that I've ridden a bike in like fifteen years, but apparently you can't forget how to do it. It's just like riding a bike after all. Minus 50 makes 750

 

Motorbike? I'm not Officer Jenny, so I'll stick with the regular one that can fit in my ~~TARDIS~~ bag.

Wait, a helicopter? That's kind of awesome, but I'm going to pass. There are other ways to get to other places, and I don't exactly have anywhere to put it. I'll just fly around on Chazza when he evolves and ride my bike until then. Totally different to the games obviously. Chan rolled her eyes at my mental sarcasm.

 

Parachute? Wingsuit? Rappelling Rig? Thrust Pack? Sounds like someone wants me to do extreme sports in the Pokemon world. I will take the parachute and the rappelling rig though, those sound like they'd be very useful in an emergency. Brings me down to 650

 

Rebreather, good for diving, so yes. 600 left.

 

Laptop, always handy to have. Actually...

 

“Hey, for the laptop, can I have my hard drive loaded onto it?”

 

“Sure thing. Imports usually come in later jumps, but it's not a problem to start now.”

 

Tossing in the Medical Kit as well brought me to 450

 

Looking over the rest of the items, three looked tempting. The Hypervisor, the Capture Styler (both 200), and the Snag Machine (600 and out of my price range)

The Hypervisor lets me see Pokemon health, and also 20 seconds of X-ray vision. Pretty damn good, I'll have it. I click on the shiny new notes asterisk that's now beside each box and type in that I'd like to import my glasses as the hypervisor. A green tick appears next to the box letting me know it's accepted. I grabbed the Capture Styler so I could play at being a Pokémon Ranger, then scrolled back up and bought the money.

 

That was my last CP spent, but there was still one last page. Drawbacks.

I scrolled down and looked over them. Well shit. I could have night terrors courtesy of Darkrai; I could have crippling poképhobia; I could be chased by police or Team Flare or a legendary Pokémon; I could be crippled or mute; have ghosts steal my stuff; or I could have a swarm of Zubats attacking me every night. Fuck me. Well the Zubat horde sounded good for levelling up at least, so I grabbed that, but that was only 100. Looking over the higher points, I guess Marked. I was going to get on the wrong side of Team Flare anyway, genocidal fuckers that they are, might as well get 200 for it.

I now had an extra 300 to play with so back up to Items I went. I noticed that there were a handgun and a sniper rifle for sale. Why? Why the hell would you want a gun in Pokémon? That makes no sense. Who would buy those? It was probably an American thing. Not having guns in everything is probably unamerican or some shit. That’s kinda jingoistic, I’ll admit, but at the same time they do really love their guns

Regardless, I had 300 burning a hole in my pocket, so I put Blend back in the trolley.

With my last 150 I could grab some more Master Balls, but did I really need more than half a dozen? I wasn’t going legendary hunting after all

Ooo a collapsible baton! I always wanted one of those. It only costs 50, so what the hell. I’ll grab that, the infinite fuel blowtorch, and another cash injection, bringing me to 10K pokébucks and 0 CP.

 

* * *

 

“Ok, I guess I'm ready to go.” I told Chan. “What happens now?”

 

“Since it's your first time I'll be gentle,” she smirked at me and tapped the tablet.

 

A big red button appeared on the screen labelled **INSERTION**. I guess that's my entry point. I press the button and the world flickers and fades...

 

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, I know that triple CP is a lot, but in the first draft it was infinite and had zero control over drawbacks. This way is much better. I can still choose most of the stuff I want while following the intended spirit of what is essentially a long line of CYOAs. I also left in Chan being able to spring drawbacks on me for 0 points if I don't choose interesting ones, it gives me a vehicle to put in stuff that I, as author, would love to play with that I, as Jumper, would never willingly choose.  
> Hope you don't hate it too much, Pokeland is more fun.


End file.
